11.9.11

THE FINAL: WILLIAMS V SELBY

Well the engraver can at least start work early on the trophy after Mark Selby and Mark Williams made it through to the Shanghai Masters final yesterday.

Selby blitzed a badly below par Mark King 6-0 but Williams was forced to fight through a lengthy encounter with Neil Robertson 6-5.

This finished at gone midnight. After his press conference and factoring in the travelling time back to the hotel Williams would not have got to bed much before 2am, and of course there’s no guarantee what time he would have got to sleep ahead of a long and difficult final.

So Selby is certainly more refreshed for today’s best of 19 frames final but he is also under a little pressure, having won only one of his previous five ranking tournament finals.

And of course he lost 9-7 to Williams in last season’s German Masters final, a real tough battle in Berlin.

The added spice for today’s match is that these two players are duking it out to be world no.1, although for each the title will be far more important.

Williams was in the season’s first ranking final but lost 9-8 in the Australian Open to Stuart Bingham from 8-5 up.

Selby has been ultra consistent these past couple of years but the test of greatness in any sport comes down to what you have won.

He certainly has the talent to win a great deal but so far has just one ranking title to his name.

It seems likely to be a close final pitting Williams, perhaps the most laidback of all of snooker’s top guns, against Selby, a true professional who visibly works hard for every point.

A clash of styles, then, and hopefully a compelling finish to the week, although the table was a clear cause for concern in last night’s semi-final. Let’s hope it doesn’t wreck the showpiece finale.

Apologies for being off topic Dave, but I found this quote from Judd Trump in the Bristol Evening Post a bit curious:_________________________________Breaks of 48 and 55 did the trick as Trump was left to contemplate a long flight to Brazil in preparation for the next ranking tournament of the season, the Brazilian Masters, which runs from September 15-18 at the Transamerica Expo Centre in Sao Paulo.

"I'm looking forward to playing in Brazil," added Trump. "It's the first time we've had a big tournament there, so it will be interesting to see what response we get over there."___________________________________

Are they making stuff up (apart from Brazil being a ranking tournament obviously!) or has Juddly had a change of heart regarding Brazil?

I can hear the flap of white coats now! Honestly you could not make it up - leaving the final at 7-7. What's that all about?It's an utterly contemptible way to treat snooker fans. Eurosport need to get another channel or run the risk of alienating viewers. They show so much live sport but their scheduling is away with the fairies.Somebody needs to pull their finger out.

Eurosport coverage of the final has just turned in to a right crock. Why can't they show an uninterrupted snooker final? Barry Hearn needs to revisit the Eurosport contract pronto because every final they show turns in to a farce.They frequently overrun to show tennis / cycling / skiing / superbikes/ surfing/ snowboarding. But snooker seems to be the poor relation.Am I on my own in feeling this way? Am I on a parallel universe?What do others feel about it?I'm just going off now to boil my head.

They have now been repeating footage from TV tens of times to determine whether Selby's hit and hope was a foul, and therefore also a miss.

It seemed to me that Selby struck Pink and Red simultaneously (and Everton agrees), and therefore it would be a foul but because the referee knew how controversial it would be, he opted to give it as red first. Selby had already conceded that he thought it was pink first. In any case the useless miss rule has now had an effect on this match and final, and if Williams loses it, it will be a BIG stain on this sport.

Selby has basically just got an advantage from smashing balls anywhere, something the anti fluke and anti miss rule would have solved. The very fact you can hit and hope in a "professional sport" is laughable.

In fact, it may be time to say "open table" to all fouls in this sport. It is ridiculous.

In another shocking misinterpretation of the rules, the referee gave a foul and then later took away that decision which I believe is ALSO against the rules. Once a decision has been made it has been made.

People often ask me why I am so negative to a sport I love, and the answer is, it has some absolutely serious flaws that have ruined so many matches it is unreal. The shame of it is, no one does anything, and indeed some fans are actually happy that our sport is destroyed by luck and controversy and daft rules.

Miss rule farce strikes again at 9-8.. 22 points given away to Selby and I am supposed to believe this is good for Snooker and fair play? How can that many points be justified from a Snooker? The last balls are worth 27! It is complete joke!

And now in final frame williams goes mad because Selby fluked a red and gained an unfair advantage. Haha this sport is being made a mockery in this final.... It has been about luck and bad rules for the last 3 frames. I have to say I am loving it, because the more this happens the closer we are to someone sorting these outdated rules.

This whole match has been about miss rule, luck (including a kick for Williams when he was sure to win), bad rules, fluke pots, bad refereeing, bad technology for important decisions....

to seifer:My personal view is that the referee didn't know what to call at first. Someone instucted him (probably it have been the assistant/s referee/s if there is such a term)that it was a foul.He calls a foul then. At this point I agree with you that his call should not have been taken back.However what will happen in case a referee makes a wrong call and it is so obvious that it would be gravely unfair for one player to continue ? (for example one make a perfectly legitimate contact with say a red -when a red is on- and the referee (being tired enough) calls a foul !)That is probably the reason why the ref has the oprion to take his call back in order to serve the best interests of both players involved.The computers and the hawk eye or how you want to call them were used and to the best interest of both players the fould was taken back. It is also the ref's opinion that counts as to whether the pink or the red was struck first and not ours.Lastly, I have to admit that it would have looked way better IF THE REF had taken some sort of a 'time out' consulted with his assistants and delivered his opinion with a certain and final way.

Seifer: true miss rule is a farce I couldn't agree more it was ridiculous at 9-8 when Selby got 22 points.Williams should have kept his head when Selby fluked a red and gained advantage as Williams got away with hitting the reds full pace and got an in-off leaving Selby preety much tough options. Had he kept his nerve he could've made that red he played at pocket speed (his last shot in the final) when 50 odd down or something.The kick MJW got on the green was diabolical.

You might think it is great being selfish, but I care more about justice and who should have won. And that man was Williams. Selby did nothing to come back and Williams did precious little wrong.

People are already dancing around calling him a choker but they are blatantly ignoring that there is a serious conflict of interests here with the rules, the refs call, the amount of fluke pots that are allowed as if they were skilled pots, and the miss rule which is the most ridiculously unfair rule I have ever seen in ANY game or sport.

This final has exposed some serious issues with this game, not least how a referee can award a foul and then later take it back.

I have never seen anything like it.

Now you might be all happy with that because it fulfills your entertainment, but I find that a disgraceful attitude to have.

Would it be fair if MJW won the match in Frame 18 when he was trapped in a snooker on the last red, behind the black, and missed it four times before, incredibly, hitting the red and leaving his opponent in the same spot behind the black!! HOW LUCKY AND "UNFAIR" WAS THAT ?Remember Selby escaped at his first attempt (!) but left Williams a clear match-winning chance, only for him to fail on the green. Remeber Selby dished calmly for 9-9 no chocking there (!)In all fairness it was obvious that MJW was frustrated with the event in Frame 17, it is a cruel game.As for the incident in frame 17, Selby said: "It was very difficult for the referee to see which ball I hit first. Mark felt I hit the pink and I wasn't sure. The referee studied it and felt it had hit the red first, and we accepted that."

Williamssaid that : "Overall Mark played a bit better than me so he deserved it."

the game has been played for the last 35 years as a wide audienced televised sport and flukes and kicks were all part of the game, but because he says so and hardly anyone else says so, weve to change the rules.